Also 6 -cratie. [a. OF. tymocracie (Oresme, 14th c.), mod.F. timocratie, ad. med.L. tīmocratia (in 13th c. transl. Aristotle), a. Gr. τῑμοκρατία, used by Plato and by Aristotle in two distinct senses, f. τῑμή (a) honor. (b) value or valuation + -κρατία: see -CRACY. The Aristotelian, the later sense in Greek, was the first to appear in Eng. literature.]
1. In the Aristotelian sense: A polity with a property qualification for the ruling class.
1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1589), 548. The third kind of a good and right common-wealth is of a Greeke word called Timocratie, which we may cal the power of meane or indifferent wealth.
1594. Mirr. Policie (1599), D iij. Now, as amongst sharpe thorns, the sweet Rose is gathered so between the two kinds of a depraued Commonweale, to wit, Oligarchie and Democratie, this commonweale Timocratie is founded: which may bee compared to the Rose.
a. 1647. Sir R. Filmer, Observ. Aristotle’s Pol. (1652), 6. Of all the right kindes of Government Monarchy was the best, and a Timocratie the worst.
1749. trans. Sallust’s Concerning the Gods and the World, xi., in Lond. Mag., XVIII. Dec., 560/2. Where affection bears the sway, and the people confer the honours of magistracy upon the rich, because of the advantages they reap from them, it [government] constitutes that form which is called timocracy…. And the opposite of timocracy is democracy, because the rich do not govern, but every thing is directed by the whim of the populace.
1818. T. Taylor, Aristotle’s Rhet., etc., II. 311. The polities indeed are, a kingdom, an aristocracy, and the third is derived from the distribution of honours through the medium of wealth, which as it seems may be appropriately called a timocracy.
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, I. x. 408. The scale of the timocracy was gradually lowered, until it was wholly abolished.
1847. Grote, Greece, II. xi. III. 159. Such were the divisions in the political scale established by Solon, called by Aristotle a Timocracy, in which the rights, honours, functions and liabilities of the citizens were measured out according to the assessed property of each.
2. In the Platonic sense: A polity (like that of Sparta) in which love of honor is said to be the dominant motive with the rulers.
1656. Stanley, Hist. Philos., v. (1701), 195. Of a Commonwealth he asserteth five kinds, the first, Aristocracy, when the best Rule; the second, Timocracy, when the Ambitious; the third, Democracy, when the People; the fourth, Olygarchy, when a few; the last, Tyranny, which is the worst of all.
1845. Maurice, Mor & Met. Philos., in Encycl. Metrop., II. 620/1. The fraternal type of equality will be preserved in all friendships under a timocracy.
1852. Davies & Vaughan, trans. Plato’s Rep. (1858), 307. We will begin on the present occasion by examining the ambitious constitution—(I do not know of any other name in use; we must call it Timocracy or Timarchy).
1871. Morley, Crit. Misc., Ser. I. 333. A timocracy in which the energetic ambitious and military type will become dominant.
